- I'm here at the inaugural UAE Tour
which is a world tour event and we've got
some of the world's best riders here.
And what's more, we've got some of the world's best tech.
Let's go check it out!
(slow-paced edgy music)
Right, the last time I was in the United Arab Emirates
which was about 12 months ago
and I was checking out the bikes of Aqua Blue Sport
who are using a one-by set up.
They were the only team in the Pro Peloton doing so.
Fast-forward 12 months,
now I've got the bike of Bauke Mollema
Trek's Bontrager here next to me.
And look at that, single chain ring on there.
50 tooth unit and he's paired that up
with a 27 lowest-sprocket here on the cassette
and a 10 is the highest.
That should be alright for the first few stages
since it's pretty flat.
But I did speak to the mechanic just now
and he said that if the terrain
is gonna get particularly lumpy
you may well go for a 33 on the rear there.
Or alternatively just go back to the standard two by set up.
But it's great to see that a rider is doing this
because I have heard that Bauke Mollema
is really into his tech.
Narrow, wide chain ring.
I just managed to spot this
the brand new bike of Mark Cavendish.
Of course he is riding BMC
for the first time this year.
And well, on the drops of his handlebars
the sprint shifters are placed
in a really different place too,
well, where I've ever seen them before.
Normally, they're just on the insides
of the drops of the handlebar.
But these are actually right on the front
almost like in a trigger position.
Which has got me thinking.
Years ago, Rob Hales, he actually made Cav
some special levers for his shram set-up
so it almost pulls like a trigger
so he had to release it during a sprint
if he needed to change gears.
So, possibly that's where he really likes to have them.
But I've never seen that on his bike before.
It's amazing when you get to see these races.
You can also see here on Cav's bike
it's that he's got his initials MC and then a one
just on the sidewall of the tyre, there.
Which makes me think that, well,
possibly the wheels have been built to a special
configuration for him.
Because the tyres, they look pretty much look standard.
But I'll have to try and ask one of the mechanics actually,
to see what's going on there.
Or, maybe it's just to say that these are in fact
his race wheels.
And then, also, let's see here.
We can see a little bit of gaffer tape
on the actual fitting system for the bike on the roof
to try to protect the sidewalls from any sharp edges
that may be on that bike kit.
Never seen that done before on any roof rack.
They're always thinking these mechanics, always thinking.
I'm here with the bike of Patrick Bevin
of the CCC Team.
Some of you remember that he had an absolutely storming ride
at the Tour Down Under.
And I've got a feeling this is probably his training bike.
The thing that gives it away to me,
is that he's got a little light here
on the underside of the saddle.
It needs to be removed or reattached.
Although it's not working at the moment,
because,why, he's probably been out getting
the miles in training.
But I do like the sleek little rear light like that.
It's a nice one, Pappy.
Now when you're a pro rider, you've got
so much equipment you can choose from.
And whilst walking through the paddock here,
I saw some helmets hanging out to dry,
so I thought, John, stop.
Have a look and check out those helmets.
Right, so first up, is the Rev from Giant.
And this is gonna be used when,
well, you're riding in the mountains
where you require a lot of air flow,
such as the weather was today.
It's been pretty warm out here
hence why they've been hosed down and out to dry.
So as you can see, lots and lots of ventilation
and it's got a quite striking appearance actually.
Not bad.
Then next we've got the Pursuit helmet.
So, an aerodynamic road race going on one side you can see
all the vents, none on the top at all.
But then, on the rear, we've got those big old exhaust vents
to let out the hot air.
'Cause of course, the top vents they have like
a chimney effect.
But when you're riding fast,
there's not so much of a chimney effect going on
it's more of an exhaust on a car if that makes sense.
Hopefully it does.
Inside of both those helmets you've got
the mixed liners too,
which help reduce any rotational impact
if you were to have a crash.
And then finally, one of my favourites actually,
is this one here, the Rivet.
And I love that name because, well,
when you're riding a time-trial
or anything like that on you're own,
you're normally on the rivet up against the clock.
Again, no ventilation on the top.
You've just got those four on the front
and then there's four on the inside of the rear
that exit through that single exhaust vent.
And the final finishing touch about this helmet,
which I think is great.
Is the padded ear flaps, if you like.
If ever you've tried to put a time trial helmet on,
some of them, well, it can feel like
you're trying to cut your ears off,
because when the plastic goes on there always,
it's not a pleasant experience.
But with these rubber coated ones,
I'm a big fan of that.
I wouldn't mind riding on the Rivet again.
Just checking out the bike of Dmitriy Gruzdev,
of Team Astana, 63 and a half centimetres
from the tip of that saddle to the centre of the bar
and 140 millimetre stem too.
It reminds me of a bike from the mid-90s, I guess,
when riders were just trying to get as long as possible.
He's obviously a big lad with his upper body.
Just spotted a couple of mechanics' pro hacks here.
First up we've got a little bit of kinesio tape
inside of the plastic mount for the GPS device
on the front of the handlebars.
That could possibly stop it from rocking or rattling
because even those plastic inserts can wear out too.
Also we've got an aluminium bar and stem on there
as well as the old Dura ace 9000 brake callipers
which makes me think that this bike,
possibly, has trouble meeting the UCI
minimum weight limit of 6.8 kilos.
It's got all of the latest ultra light components on it.
(bluesy music)
Now the Astana Team are the only team
in the world tour using Wolfpack tyres.
Wolfpack themselves are a very small outfit,
operating from Germany
and produce tyres in quite limited numbers I imagine.
And, what I think is super interesting about this tyres
it is got really smooth tread through the centre,
and then just on the outer edges
you've got a surface which reminds me
of a preparation wheel,
so the sort of thing you put in an angle grinders
to remove paint from a car
or a rusty gate something like that.
And it does seem like it would be incredibly grippy,
just by the feel of it.
And then, something ultra cool, world tour riders
don't just use top of the range componentry,
because here we've got
some Ultegra r8000 cassettes on these wheels.
Something increasingly common we see on clipless pedals,
particularly the look ones actually,
is a little bit of gaffer tape or handlebar tape
on the actual platform of them.
Because once the actual cleat of the pedal
starts to wear away,
then you do tend to have just a little bit of movement,
and a few riders like to be locked-in really really solid.
So that takes up any slack or intolerances
between the two, like I say
once the cleat starts to wear-away.
Now, something else I just spotted as well,
is that the Zipp logos on these 454 NSWs
appear to be almost spray painted on,
rather than the screen-printed
or whatever process they use on the standard wheels.
So, I have a feeling this is probably
one of the first pairs of those in a tubular variety
because prior to this,
they were just available in a clincher.
Food for thought anyway.
Now the organisers of the UAE Tour
they do provide a compressor for each and every team,
so that they can well, not have to use a track pump.
Because imagine the amount of tyres they have to blow-up
each and every day.
But instead of using it, the team of Movistar
and their mechanics, they're actually using one of these
a homemade one instead.
And I believe that that has come
from the inside of a fridge.
That has given me an idea
for a Maintenance Monday video actually,
'How to Make Your own Compressor'.
(slow rhythmic music)
Now right now, the bike of Alejandro Valverde
is getting a quick wrap of fresh new bar tape.
But, he's got double on the bottom, so on the drops.
And then on the tops so just past the brake levers
it's single-layered, which is quite interesting.
I always thought it'd be ran the other way.
But hey, Alejandro, he's world champion,
what do I know?
Also, importantly, check out the speed in which the mechanic
is actually wrapping the bars.
I mean, let's face it,
he wraps hundreds if not thousands a year.
I'm pretty jealous of this.
Now when you're Alejandro Valverde
and the world champion,
yup, you earned the right to have rainbow stripes
on virtually everything you own,
such as your bike, your wheels,
your handlebar tape, finishing bits and pieces
as well as your helmet.
Incidentally, this one from Abus is incredibly light.
I didn't think I'd be quite as impressive as that.
But if that's not enough,
why don't you get yourself one of these, a rucksack?
with your name on it, as well as world champion.
There's his name, by the way.
I'm here with the bikes from Team Sunweb.
Well, they've got a couple of different versions
of the continental competition pro-limited tyres.
So you've got this one here on a C 40 wheel,
that's got the traditional competition style tread,
so it's kind of like little pinheads all over it.
Whereas on the C 60 wheel on this bike,
we've got a tread which has got
a slight bit of herringbone style tread
pattern on the edges and then a slick centre section.
So that makes me think it's probably
gonna be a quicker wheel
with slightly less rolling resistance with those tyres.
But initially, I thought that the total pinhead style tread
had actually been discontinued.
But, it's not, which is great actually.
Because I'm a big fan of this style of tread.
Okay, I've got two Cervelo S5s here.
And at first I thought it was the same seat post,
just flipped around on both.
But, in actual fact, they do come with the option
of two different style seat posts.
One a more in-line version
and one with some set-back on there.
How did I discover this?
Well, the writing is on the back on both posts.
If it was one post being used
to try to get you into a different position
that writing would have been on the front.
I'm awake today, definitely.
With saddle choice being an important thing to consider
when you're a pro cyclist,
it's amazing the actual number of saddles
that are available for riders to choose from.
Take for instance Roman Kreuziger of Team Dimension Data.
He's actually opted for this model here,
which is carbon fibre in design,
and it looks like, well, it's obvious, in fact
that the rear of it is not joined in any way at all
and instead it's joined at the nose.
And the rear sections, can presumably independently move
in order to give him a little bit more comfort.
I like the look of that.
I'm here with a bike from Gazprom-RusVelo.
And they're actually using some Tufo tyres on their bikes
which is a change from the norm
because generally, we seem to see Continental and Vittoria
dominating the Pro Peleton
with the exception of Pirelli from Mitchelin Scott
and also Wolfpack of the Astana team.
But it's good to see another brand here.
And for those of you who are saying
that the pros only use the top of the range equipment,
well, they're using the Record 11 Speed Groupset.
So, there you are.
If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for you.
(funky electronic music)
Check this out, the bike of Alexander Kristoff
of UAE Team Emirates.
He's actually got himself some Clincher Vittoria Corso tyres
fitted onto his front wheel.
I have also noticed that on a few of the bikes here too,
those of Lotto Soudal as well as Team Dimension Data.
So keep your eyes peeled.
May be more and more riders
are gonna start using tubeless tyres.
Who knows?
Now the ultimate search or quest for aerodynamics,
a few teams are actually using built-in pockets
into their skin suits.
So when I say built in I don't mean like what you find
on a traditional road jersey,
instead, it's a very flat pocket,
suitable just for a single number.
So in the case of Farim Madera
and their team clothing sponsor, you can see it.
And it kind of has a slight translucent effect to it.
And then on the flip side, the squad of Mitchelton Scott,
they've got a really clear one on their Giordana skinsuit.
Because Nopinz are a company who can make
after market pockets for your jersey or skinsuit.
Right, as you can see just over my shoulder here,
the squad of Bora Hansrohe are warming up
and they're wearing ice vests.
Because well, the sun is shining
you may be able to see by the red tint to my face
or the red glow as I like to call it.
This won't be the last time we see them using ice vests
this week to try and cool down their core body temperature
because I think, as the temperature rises
they're gonna be using them more and more.
No other team I've spotted here has got them
they must have left them in Europe.
- If you want extra $5 you can also get this.
Obviously, this protects
- Protects from the sun, as well.
- Thank you. - Yeah.
You can keep it.
Now, I wish I'd never said
that the team of Bora Hansrohe
were the only one I've seen using ice vests
because just over my shoulder,
the team of Jumbo Visma are also using them.
Although strictly speaking, they're not actually ice vests,
instead, inside of those pouches,
each individual white square is gel,
which is then put into a freezer
and then when they're put onto the rider's body,
they slowly dissolve into a liquid form again.
And then it cools down their body temperature.
Of course, you don't want to be using ice ideally,
or not too much of it,
because in turn that can cause a shock in the body
and then have adverse performance effects.
Of course, if you forget your riser block
for your turbo trainer, you can always improvise
like the squad of Mitchelin Scott have.
And in the case here,
they've got a couple of bottles of water
and they've gaffer-taped them together,
then they've slotted the front wheel in between them.
just to raise it off the ground a few centimetres.
Well, I spoke too soon, it looks like,
because I looked over my shoulder
and the riders from Bahrain Merida,
well, they've got ice vests on too.
Well, Adam, I've got to ask,
as we walked past you just now, I looked over
and I saw you filling up a container with a load of gels.
What's the deal there?
- Well, it's on the skinsuit, so I'm going to top-it
Here I just fill this up with gels.
It's makes it easy actually you put it
just like this and that's it.
Entire race I race like that
and then when I want to have some,
I take it, have some gels, put it back.
There's no waste product,
it's good for the environment and it's easy.
- How many did you get in there?
- It's per as a different brand,
with the Sarnoz ones, I can about get 12 or 14.
I didn't fill it up to the max, as you can see.
It's such a hot day today so, here you get a lot in.
And it's good!
- There we are, some fantastic bits of tech
and a big thanks as well to the mechanics and the riders
for letting me get these groppy hands all over their bikes.
Let me know your favourite bit of tech
in the comments section below.
And also remember to like and share
this video with your friends.
Give it a big old thumbs up!
And why not check out the TCN shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
Whole load of products for you to check out
and deck yourself out with.
And for two more great videos,
how about clicking just down here and just down here.
And well me, I'm gonna go back to my house.
Bye!